ABSTRACT
The National Gallery of Art (NGA) as an agency of Government under the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, is vested with the responsibility of supervising the visual art sector. This is enshrined in the NGA Amendment Act 2004 which stipulates their functions and mode of operation. One such mandate is to ensure good up-bringing as well as prepare children for the needed roles of patriotism, loyalty, governance, and appreciation of good cultural values. The children art activities of the NGA are the focus of this study. The problem of this study therefore is that, the nature and content of the visual art programmes for Children at the National Gallery of Art, as well as the scope of their activities, are yet to be scholarly examined and documented within the context of their impact and contributions to the development of Nigerian children and indeed modern art in Nigeria, hence, the need to critically examine, as well as document them, with emphasis on Saturday Art Club and National Children?s Art celebration. This is done with the aim of revealing the scope, nature and contents of such children art programmes as well as their contributions to art practice in Nigeria. The objectives of this study are to: (1) critically appraise and document the children?s art programmes of NGA in relation to their objectives (2) examine the scope, nature and content of NGA children?s visual art programmes and (3) investigate the benefits (if any), derived by children and professional artists from the children art programmes of NGA. In order to achieve this, literature relevant to the study were sourced. These include books, journals, exhibition catalogues and research reports. Questionnaires and oral interviews were used to obtain data, while two sampling techniques; random sampling and judgmental sampling methods were adopted, as also used by Duniya (2000), Mamza (2000) and Yaktal (2009). Two qualitative research approaches; historical and descriptive methods were employed. Pilot study was conducted in six NGA centers of Abuja, Umuahia, Uyo, Port Harcourt, Minna and Lagos. From the analysis and discussions, the study reveals that the nature of NGA children art activities are carried out on the basis of stimulating creative spirit in children through art competitions, fostering unity among Nigerian children as well as celebrating children?s achievements through the children?s art exhibition and celebration. However, findings reveal that the scope of NGA children?s visual art programmes is narrow compared to a number of children that are opportuned to participate in the programme. The study therefore recommends that the scope, nature and content of visual art programmes for Children at the National Gallery of Art need to be improved and scholarly documented.